Cymopterus lemmonii, May 30, 2023
Common & scientific name
Mountain parsley, Cymopterus lemmonii
Family
Parsley, Apiaceae
Location
Slope-side southeast-facing, 11,500’
Fun, weird, helpful, or little known fact
This common parsley, seen at every elevation on the Pass, gives scientists fits because of its morphological variability and differences of opinion as to how it should be classified, both genus and species-wise. But it’s one of our easier plants to identify: it has carrot-like leaves and it’s yellow, unlike any other parsleys on the Pass, which are all white (EXCEPT Alpine parsley, Oreoxis alpina, which is mat-forming and much tinier in all aspects than Mountain parsley, and Eastwood’s woodroot, Podistera eastwoodiae ).